Monday in Season after Pentecost

16Verse 16. After I had given the deed of purchase to Baruch son of Neriah, I prayed to the LORD: 17Verse 17. “Oh, Lord GOD! You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too difficult for You! 18Verse 18. You show loving devotion to thousands but lay the iniquity of the fathers into the laps of their children after them, O great and mighty God whose name is the LORD of Hosts, 19Verse 19. the One great in counsel and mighty in deed, whose eyes are on all the ways of the sons of men, to reward each one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds. 20Verse 20. You performed signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, and You do so to this very day, both in Israel and among all mankind. And You have made a name for Yourself, as is the case to this day. 21Verse 21. You brought Your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and wonders, with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, and with great terror. 22Verse 22. You gave them this land that You had sworn to give their fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey. 23Verse 23. They came in and possessed it, but they did not obey Your voice or walk in Your law. They failed to perform all that You commanded them to do, and so You have brought upon them all this disaster. 24Verse 24. See how the siege ramps are mounted against the city to capture it. And by sword and famine and plague, the city has been given into the hands of the Chaldeans who are fighting against it. What You have spoken has happened, as You now see! 25Verse 25. Yet You, O Lord GOD, have said to me, ‘Buy for yourself the field with silver and call in witnesses, even though the city has been delivered into the hands of the Chaldeans!’” 26Verse 26. Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: 27Verse 27. “Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is anything too difficult for Me? 28Verse 28. Therefore this is what the LORD says: Behold, I am about to deliver this city into the hands of the Chaldeans and of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, who will capture it. 29Verse 29. And the Chaldeans who are fighting against this city will come in, set it on fire, and burn it, along with the houses of those who provoked Me to anger by burning incense to Baal on their rooftops and by pouring out drink offerings to other gods. 30Verse 30. For the children of Israel and of Judah have done nothing but evil in My sight from their youth; indeed, they have done nothing but provoke Me to anger by the work of their hands, declares the LORD. 31Verse 31. For this city has aroused My wrath and fury from the day it was built until now. Therefore I will remove it from My presence 32Verse 32. because of all the evil the children of Israel and of Judah have done to provoke Me to anger— they, their kings, their officials, their priests and prophets, the men of Judah, and the residents of Jerusalem. 33Verse 33. They have turned their backs to Me and not their faces. Though I taught them again and again, they would not listen or respond to discipline. 34Verse 34. They have placed their abominations in the house that bears My Name, and so have defiled it. 35Verse 35. They have built the high places of Baal in the Valley of Ben-hinnom to make their sons and daughters pass through the fire to Molech— something I never commanded them, nor had it ever entered My mind, that they should commit such an abomination and cause Judah to sin.

8Verse 8. The Lord GOD has sworn by Himself— the LORD, the God of Hosts, has declared: “I abhor Jacob’s pride and detest his citadels, so I will deliver up the city and everything in it.” 9Verse 9. And if there are ten men left in one house, they too will die. 10Verse 10. And when the relative who is to burn the bodies picks them up to remove them from the house, he will call to one inside, “Is anyone else with you?” “None,” that person will answer. “Silence,” the relative will retort, “for the name of the LORD must not be invoked.” 11Verse 11. For the LORD gives a command: “The great house will be smashed to pieces, and the small house to rubble.” 12Verse 12. “Do horses gallop on the cliffs? Does one plow the sea with oxen? But you have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood— 13Verse 13. you who rejoice in Lo-debar and say, ‘Did we not take Karnaim by our own strength?’ 14Verse 14. For behold, I will raise up a nation against you, O house of Israel,” “and they will oppress you from Lebo-hamath to the Brook of the Arabah.”